Hey, stranger

So... when last I posted (back in JULY, ouch), I had just lost my hard drive, and right on the heels of that, my power supply. These events, unbeknownst to me at the time, would mark the beginning of a long separation between me and my computer - and all things and activities that I had previously associated with my computer, like blogging. As my previous posting frequency will illustrate, however, such drastic occurrences were hardly necessary to throw me off my blogger's groove, but they pretty much guaranteed it would be a while before I got back here in the driver's seat. I've been snagging email and random internet time on our laptop in the months since, but it's not the same for me as being able to sit down here at my desktop and really get comfy and compose. But Santa got me back up and running, so here I sit trying to figure out where to start. I have to say that the computer disaster (one of several in a line of similar losses over the past year or so) has been yet another thing that, despite the short-term pain, has actually been good for me because it has forced me to get out of habitual patterns and to see where those patterns were holding me back. I've seen where I have been wasting too much time or spending too much energy involved with things that don't really matter so much. I've learned a lot of lessons about how to move my life towards greater simplicity and purpose, and I don't know when or if I would have learned those lessons had I not had the opportunity foisted on me by circumstance. I hope that this will also teach me to view adversity a bit differently... to find the unlooked-for lesson in those inevitable downers.

But enough of the serious for now - yes, there's been adversity and growth and lots and lots of mamahood (both joyous and trying), but there's also been quite a bit of knitting, and that's been pretty upbeat. In the run-up to Christmas, I knitted 7 toddler flap hats, including, finally, one for my own kiddo. I also knitted a newborn hat for some friends' new arrival, and made my mother a Saroyan for Xmas. Remember this Malabrigo? That became Mom's Saroyan, a worthy use for it finally found. It was a nail-biter up to the end, since I had to make the entire scarf (or "scarf-ette" as it were) out of the one hank, so imagine me weighing, measuring, and sweating the whole way. It turned out beautifully, though, and I will be adding a digital kitchen scale to my look-for list as I go thrifting. My analog scale just doesn't quite cut it for weighing yarn. The toddler hats were all well received, and I was extra-pleased because this is essentially my own pattern, which started out as a heavily modded version of the Hudson, and kind of went from there. I made a pact with myself to be much more organized with Xmas knitting for next year, and - most importantly - to get started before (ahem) Thanksgiving. Right now, I'm working on a balaclava and convertible mittens for my husband, which really should have been a Xmas gift (see previous statement). After that, I have a couple more projects that I have to get out for other people, and then, I plan to finally knuckle down to a couple projects for myself.

Photos to come... (did I mention I lost Photoshop in the conflagration?)